Those of us who work in science, healthcare, and academia often find ourselves teaching others, whether or not we set out to be educators. Residents teach medical students. Nurses precept new nurses. Graduate students teach undergraduates. And faculty roles for researchers and clinicians also include teaching loads. Yet for many of us, our training did … Read more
Takatsubo Cardiomyopathy, known as “broken heart syndrome,” is a form of heart disease that occurs following a traumatic or stressful event; people may present after the death of a loved one or other tragic accident. Thanks to COVID-19 we are currently in a time of great stress. The stress response of a global pandemic is … Read more
Many of you are wondering about what I as a leader in various ways am thinking about the racial pandemic, juxtaposed with the coronavirus pandemic. In the coronavirus pandemic, I had been starting my emails with something like, “I hope you have been able to stay well during these unprecedented times”. This morning, I started … Read more
Much like many recent academic cardiology meetings, the American Heart Association (AHA)’s Quality of Care & Outcomes Research 2020 (#QCOR20) meeting took place virtually as well, owing to limitations posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having attended AHA Scientific Sessions 2019 as an international delegate, this was both my first time attending QCOR as well as … Read more
The Myth The global disruption caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has resulted in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the scale of the pandemic and the origin, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the disease. Falsified information including international disinformation has been spread through various social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and WhatsApp. In … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an entirely new (and robust) world of online platforms. All across the globe classrooms, meetings, conferences, and social get-togethers have become virtual. Companies such as Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, California), WebEx (Cisco WebEx, Milpitas, California), and BlueJeans (BlueJeans Network, Mountain View, California) have allowed us to maintain social … Read more
I remember my first week of internship very clearly – I was a part of my first code blue as a physician. Later that week, I had to have a goals of care discussion with a patient who had been in the hospital for 3 weeks (longer than I had been a doctor at that … Read more
In my course, Social and Economic Determinants of Health Disparities, we spend the semester discussing the complex web of factors rooted in social and economic policies that propagate disparities in health. These include education, employment, housing, broader neighborhood structures and, of course, healthcare. We also contextualize individual and interpersonal health behaviors within those structures. When … Read more
Initially known as a predominantly respiratory disease, there is currently no doubt that COVID-19 is increasingly emerging as a prothrombotic condition. Observational studies, as well as published and anecdotal case reports have highlighted the thrombotic manifestations of COVID-19, with particular emphasis on the strong association between D-dimer levels and poor prognosis.1,2 While the COVID-19 clotting … Read more
I think about wellness often and the unique aspects of being a physician that make preserving our wellbeing even more important. Of course, this COVID-19 pandemic has tested all of us and the things we turn to for wellness and our escape from medicine, may not be available to us right now. After work dinner … Read more